


The Perfect Gift

by headinthetardis



Category: Free!
Genre: Birthday Presents, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-28
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-27 07:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2683712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/headinthetardis/pseuds/headinthetardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Makoto's 18th birthday, and his friends aren't exactly geniuses at picking out gifts...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Perfect Gift

**Author's Note:**

> This was part of a collab with raisintheta. She did some really REALLY nice artwork that you should definitely check out because it's hella cute and she's an awesome artist. Here's the link-http://raisintheta.tumblr.com/post/103736118335

Haru walked towards the room, two cups of coffee in hand. Cappuccinos, with several spoons of sugar and a hint of chocolate. He and Makoto may be different in many ways, but they both agreed that coffee, unless it was 2 am and you were working, needed to be mild, sweet, and delicious.  
He entered the living room to find Makoto standing in front of the shelf, instead of lying comfortably on the sofa like Haru had left him. He seemed to be staring at the garish mug he’d received as a birthday present a week ago.

“Hey,” said Haru, setting the cups down on the table and going to stand next to him “is something wrong?”

Makoto’s eyes snapped towards him, widening slightly, as though he’d only just realized that Haru had come into the room.

“Oh, no, not at all,” he said, smiling “I was just thinking about the birthday party. I really did have a good time this year. All thanks to you and everyone else.”

Haru returned the smile with his own small, soft one.

“Yeah, it was nice” he said, his gaze turning to the mug as well “We wanted to make it special for you.”

 

* * *

 

 

 “Sousuke, I love you, but you need better taste.” Said Rin bluntly, looking at the shirt his boyfriend was holding up, eyebrows raised.

“What? It’s a nice shirt!” said Sousuke defensively, looking at the shirt and frowning, unable to figure out what was so terrible about it. It was neat, stylish, and looked comfortable. Plus it was green-wasn’t that Tachibana’s favourite colour or something? It was a cool gift!

“Yeah, it’s _nice,_ but it’s so _boring._ We should get Makoto something funny!”

Now it was Sousuke’s turn to give his boyfriend a skeptical, unimpressed look.

“Funny? Do you really think Tachibana Makoto would appreciate a prank gift?”

“Sure! Besides,” he said, a mischievous grin spreading across his face “the gift would be more for our amusement than his happiness.”

“Wow Rin, you’re such a nice friend.”

Rin ignored the jab, continuing to walk through the shop in search of the perfect funny gift. Sousuke followed him, taking the shirt along. He didn’t trust Rin’s gifting decisions-it was a good idea to have a backup plan.

 “Oh my god” said Rin suddenly stopping at a shelf stacked with colourful mugs. He grabbed one right on the edge of the shelf and showed it excitedly to Sosuke “This one’s perfect!”

It was purple and had “WORLD’S BEST MOM”written in big bold letters on the front

Sousuke took one look at it and almost hit Rin for being a goddamn idiot with a terrible sense of humour.

“You _cannot_ be serious.”

“It’s brilliant! Perfect for Makoto!”

“It says World’s Best Mom!”

“Exactly! C’mon, even you have to admit that Makoto acts like everyone’s mother. This mug will be a great gift.”

“Are you honestly going to give that to him?” said Sousuke exasperatedly

“Hell yeah! It’s funny and cool.” replied Rin stubbornly. The mug was a perfect gift. It was definitely better than some stupid old shirt.

Sousuke sighed, shaking his head at the ridiculous mug.

“Fine, do want you want.” He said, giving up. He wasn’t even going to try arguing with Rin, it would be pointless.

Rin beamed at him, while Sousuke rolled his eyes and began walking towards the billing counter. He was still holding the shirt- he was going to buy it. Tachibana deserved at least one normal gift, no matter what Rin said. But Rin, at the moment, didn’t seem to care, as he walked beside Sousuke, smugly clutching the mug with both of his hands, as though it were some sort of prize.

Sousuke just hoped that all of Tachibana’s other friends weren’t such big idiots.

 

* * *

 

 

“Nagisa, I cannot work like this, we need a plan!”  
Rei was extremely frazzled. They had just spent 2 hours walking around the mall, hopping from store to store, seeing what seemed like millions of clothes, shoes, books and cards, none of which had seemed right for Makoto. They had bought a large bag of candy, to be gifted with another small present, but considering that it was now torn open in Nagisa’s hands, half empty already, that plan was out of the question. Plus Nagisa kept getting distracted by something or the other every five minutes, which was definitely _not_ helping.

“A plan?”

“Yes! Some sort of organization! We cannot keep walking aimlessly around the mall. Let’s just stop for a minute and decide what exactly we want to get Makoto-senpai.”

“Okay,” said Nagisa, sitting down on a bench outside a frozen yoghurt shop.

“So what do you think we should get him? Oooh! We should get him one of those shiny studded shoes we saw in that shop. Or maybe that really cool water gun, oh or that whale plushie we saw-”

“We should get him something practical.”

“Practical? Like what?”

“I don’t know…but something that will be useful to him.”

“Hmmm” Nagisa, cocking his head thoughtfully and munching on candy as he ran through ideas in his head.

“How about some books on swimming? I know good ones.” suggested Rei “There’s ‘Basic Guidelines and Tips for Swimmers’, but I suppose Makoto senpai already knows all the basic guidelines by now. ‘Achieving Perfection-a thorough guide to building a perfect swimmer’s body’ is useful, so is ‘The Art of Swimming’, which describes techniques and forms quite well. Another book detailing the-“

“I don’t think Mako-chan would really enjoy that” replied Nagisa, cutting him off.

What would Mako-chan enjoy? He liked a lot of things- swimming… Haru-chan…cats. Maybe they could get him something related to one of those…

Nagisa sat up suddenly, having a light-bulb moment.

“I know! We should get him swimming goggles! His are really worn out, he’s been using them since high school. I think he’d really like some new ones!”

Rei, who had been frowning in concentration (And frustration), brightened up immediately.

“Yes! Perfect!”

They grinned at each other, and walked excitedly towards the sportswear shop. Upon entering, the pair went straight to the swimming section, stopping in front of the aisle with several rows of shelves with swimming goggles neatly placed on them.

They both saw it at exactly the same time.

“Oh!” they gasped, each of their hands reaching for it.

It was a pair of black goggles with green swirls on the front, around the lenses. It had silver, glittery waves on each side. It was shiny, and sparkly. It was-

“Beautiful! Rei exclaimed, holding it in his hands and inspecting it from every angle.

“It really is!” agreed Nagisa, his eyes shining as he looked at the goggles.

“We are definitely getting these! They’re gorgeous” he said

“Yes!” said Rei, nodding vigorously  
“Mission accomplished!”

 

* * *

 

 

Haru tightened his grip around the piping bag, steadily moving it across the cake and creating patterns in swift, sure movements. It was almost done now, just a little bit of icing remained.

It hadn’t taken as long as he’d expected. The vanilla sponge was child’s play, but even the decoration had been easier than he’d imagined. The killer whale, which he’d thought would be the most complicated part, had been a simple matter of mixing the leftover cake trimmings with cream to form the basic shape of the whale, and then adding the additional details with fondant. Now, he was decorating the top of the cake, surrounding the whale with blue swirls, foamy white at the edges where the mammal broke through the surface of the buttercream ocean.

Haru glanced at the clock. He had plenty of time- he could maybe even take a nice bath before everyone arrived. After all, once the cake was done, he didn’t really have anything to do. They had divided the work equally. Nagisa and Rei had promised to do the decorations, and Sousuke and Rin had been charged with getting snacks. Plus, they were all getting separate gifts.

Haru wondered what the others were getting Makoto. Knowing them, they had probably left the gift-shopping to be done last minute. Fools. His gift had been ready for days. It was lying on the table, neatly packed and ready to be given to an unsuspecting Makoto, who probably expected just a cake.

Imagining Makoto’s reaction to his present made Haru smile softly, as he finished the cake and placed it in the fridge. His work for now was done.

 

* * *

 

 

“Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Makoto, Happy Birthday to you!” they all sang, as Makoto cut the cake. Nagisa led the chorus, Rin singing along happily, Rei looking slightly abashed, Sousuke singing as well(albeit a bit uncomfortably) and Haru softly joining in the song.

Makoto cut out a small slice, feeding a bit of it to Haru, and the rest to Nagisa, who looked like he would dive face-first into the cake if he wasn’t given some immediately.

“Yum! It’s delicious Haru-chan!” he said happily, cutting himself another slice.

“Hmm.” Haru was analyzing the cake on his own, chewing it carefully and trying to assess it.

“It is.” He finally concluded, with a nod.

Soon, everyone was praising Haru’s cake, as they all sat around the living room, plates of food in their hand. They were comfortable there, sitting on the couch, some of them on the floor, talking and laughing cheerfully.

Nagisa seemed to have taken it upon himself to be the life of the party, which to him meant bouncing around excitedly, streamers, baubles, and other decorations wrapped around him, making him look like the physical embodiment of a wild party. Makoto laughed good-naturedly at his antics, while the others seemed too busy in conversations of their own. Rei and Haru were deep into a discussion about baking, Rei talking about the molecular gastronomy behind it, and the precision it required, while Haru said he just did everything by eye and feel.  
Sousuke was sitting on one edge of the sofa, his face buried in his hands, as Rin cracked pun after bad pun about Makoto being a ‘mom’.

 “PRESENTS TIME!” declared Nagisa, once everyone had finished devouring the cake Haru had baked and the food Sousuke and Rin had brought.

The rest of the group agreed enthusiastically, bringing out the presents they had gotten for Makoto.  
Nagisa and Rei were the first to present Makoto with their gift. They watched him eagerly as he unwrapped the bright multi-coloured paper to reveal the goggles underneath. He laughed, rubbing the back of his head, and thanked them for the thoughtful gift. Glitter wasn’t really his style, but they had so kindly remembered that he needed goggles, and picked out a pair with such care, he couldn’t help but love it-even if it was more for the gesture than for the gift itself.

Sousuke and Rin were next. They presented their gifts separately, Sousuke having made it abundantly clear that he wanted nothing to do with the foolish mug. Makoto did like the shirt, as he had predicted. But, watching his reaction to Rin’s present, Sousuke had to admit that Rin had a point when he said that it was funny and very amusing. The poor guy didn’t know how to react, and he just tried to look grateful and happy, while everyone around him tried (and failed) to not erupt into a fit of giggles. Even Haru couldn’t stop himself from laughing, turning his face away from everyone as he did so, and soon everyone was in splits, laughing heartily, birthday boy included.

Makoto was grateful for all the presents he had gotten. They were nice and thoughtful, not to mention funny. He was grateful for the celebrations too. He hadn’t really planned on doing anything special, but his friends had insisted on throwing him a party. He smiled, looking at them sitting next to him. Most of all, he was grateful for his friends.

 

* * *

 

 

“Thank you.” Said Makoto quietly, his arms wrapped around Haru. Everyone else had left a few minutes ago, and now it was just the two of them left in Haru’s apartment.

“Don’t thank me,” said Haru “I haven’t even given you your present yet.”

Makoto pulled away, just enough to see his boyfriend’s face but still have his arms on Haru’s waist.

“Present?” he said, puzzled.

The corners of Haru’s mouth tugged up slightly, hinting at a smile.

“Wait here” he said, turning and walking towards his room.

He came back a couple of minutes later, neatly wrapped package in hand. He handed it to Makoto, sitting wordlessly on the sofa next to him.

Makoto opened it, his gentle hands untying the ribbon that held the blue paper together, and pulling out a framed picture.  
No, wait, it wasn’t a picture. It was a painting. The painting was blue, clear blue water, with two large fish in it- a dolphin and a whale. Makoto let out a short breath has he realized what it was.

“Our first date.” He whispered, his fingers tenderly grazing the paper.

“Correct.”

Makoto’s gaze was still fixed on the painting, the pristine blue of the water taking him back to that day a little over a year ago, when Haru and he had finally started going out. They went to the aquarium for their first date. This tank, the one with the dolphin and the whale, had interested them the most. According to the lady working at the aquarium, the two were usually in separate tanks, the whale needing a large amount of space. But that day, they had decided to put the whale in that tank, which housed several fish, to see how it would interact with them. It seemed to have formed an unlikely friendship with the dolphin.

He looked up at Haru, a ‘thank you’ forming on his lips, when Haru said “Wait, there’s more.”

He handed Makoto a sketchbook, motioning for him to open it.

Makoto did, and gasped when he saw what was inside. He turned the pages gently, his mouth opening wider and wider as he went through the book.

It was filled with drawings, drawings of him. It had eighteen pages of sketches, one for each year, showing an important moment from that year. Page one was him as a baby, just born, page two him standing for the first time, page three him with a kitten, his first pet, and so on and so forth.

Makoto leafed through the pages in disbelief. On each page, Haru had captured perfectly what a year of his life had meant to him. Page five was him and Haru as kids, them meeting for the first time. Page eleven was him, Haru, Rin, Nagisa winning the relay, page seventeen was them at nationals, page eighteen showed the both of them kissing in the doorway as Makoto left for his first day at college. Haru, with a few strokes of his pencil, had recreated some of Makoto’s most precious memories. Looking up into those blue eyes, he didn’t know what to say.

“Haru, I...” he trailed off, unable to put into words the emotion that was coursing through him.

“It’s okay.” Said Haru, moving close to him and gently lacing his fingers through Makoto’s. He understood.  
Makoto moved in closer, pulling him into a warm embrace.

They stayed like that for a while, holding each other. When they pulled apart at last, Makoto managed to say small “Thank You.”  
They looked through the book together, smiling and reminiscing.

“What about the rest of the pages?” asked Makoto jokingly

Haru’s mouth curled into a small smile before he replied

“For the future.”

 


End file.
